


Longing For a Time That Never Came

by Eggling



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: M/M, Season 6B, as in it's not difficult to read it as having a happy ending, but it cuts off before we know what happens, maybe implied possible major character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-12 02:45:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10480395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggling/pseuds/Eggling
Summary: The Doctor, Jamie, empty space, and a hopeless attempt at being rescued.





	

**Author's Note:**

> for [ettelwenailinon](ettelwenailinon.tumblr.com).

The first thing Jamie saw as the blackness faded from his vision was the Doctor, hovering over him nervously, one hand cupping his face, the other clutching his arm so tightly it was almost painful. He struggled to sit upright, and the Doctor gently eased him up, his eyes full of worry. He had nice eyes, Jamie thought dimly, all blue and sparkly and beautiful. His head felt like it was wrapped in cotton wool, cushioned but somehow distant, even the sound of – of _something_ , metal grinding loudly against metal – seeming far away, and all he could concentrate on was the way the Doctor was looking at him, cradling him as if he were the most precious thing in the universe.

“Och, I’m just fine,” he managed at last, reaching out to swat the Doctor’s hand away from his shoulder. It was only when the strange section of distance faded that he realised he had wound up grabbing the Doctor’s hands, the contact grounding him, the sensation of the Doctor’s wedding ring cool against his skin familiar and comforting.

“I’m, ah, I’m not so sure.” The Doctor was fussing around him, helping him stand, wrapping an arm around his waist to support him. “You hit your head quite badly, you’ve been drifting in and out of consciousness for an hour or two.” His gaze softened. “Oh, Jamie, I was so worried.”

“Aye, well, I’m fine now. Promise.” Everything was growing steadily less hazy, and as Jamie looked around, fragments of memory started to come back to him. The captain having descended into some sort of madness – the space station breaking up – and -

“This is one of the escape pods,” he said. “I thought ye said they’d all lost power!”

“They have,” the Doctor said softly.

“That they didnae have any way to contact the people on the rocket! That they were all going tae be ejected and drift off endlessly through space!”

“That’s right.”

Suddenly, Jamie realised precisely how weary the Doctor sounded, that he was not at all his usual, confident self. If that was true, if the Doctor had lost faith in any chance of rescue… He sat down heavily on one of the cold metal benches lining the walls. “What happened?”

The Doctor sighed and sat down beside him. “The space station was about to fall apart. I couldn’t stop the captain in time, he’d already set the process in motion, remember?” Jamie nodded, another fragment falling into place. “I didn’t – you’d been injured, and there was nothing I could do. I managed to get you to an escape pod, reroute enough power for a few seconds just to eject it.”

“And the people on board the space station?” Jamie ventured. “Are they -” The Doctor nodded wordlessly.

“The rescue shuttle never came,” he murmured. “There was no way for them to escape. There’ll be rather a lot of debris floating around in space, I should think.”

Jamie looked over and saw those eyes, those beautiful blue eyes filling with tears, and wrapped his arms securely around the Doctor, rubbing his back soothingly. The Doctor buried his face in Jamie’s chest in return, and Jamie could feel him shaking. It was almost unnerving, seeing the Doctor like this. He was always so certain that he could get them out of anything, so brave in the face of every danger they encountered, that to be the one comforting the Doctor felt wrong. But if it fell to him to get them through this, then so be it.

“What’re we going tae do?” he said. “We’ve got tae contact someone – to get help somehow.”

“Oh, Jamie,” the Doctor mumbled into his chest, so quietly Jamie could barely hear him. “There’s nothing we can do. We can’t send a signal to anyone, there’s no power.”

“Well -” Jamie looked around again, desperately this time. “Can’t ye get some from somewhere?”

“It doesn’t work like that,” the Doctor protested, but Jamie had already stood up and started pacing the few metres of open space. “There’s nothing we can do, Jamie, I’ve already tried everything.”

“There must be _something_ ,” Jamie insisted.

“Well, perhaps -” The Doctor twisted his hands together nervously. “Perhaps if we tried to set up a simple battery, then – oh, but the signal wouldn’t be nearly strong enough.”

“Aye, but it’s something,” Jamie said. The Doctor looked up at him, eyes wide and still filled with tears, bottom lip sticking out slightly, looking for all the world like a lost child.

“I’ll need your help,” he said at last.

Jamie smiled, stepped forwards, and took the Doctor’s hands in his. “Always.”

* * *

They worked in silence for long minutes, the Doctor fiddling with wires and boxes and things Jamie didn’t recognise, Jamie quietly passing him equipment. The Doctor’s face grew more clouded with despair as he worked, and he muttered under his breath darkly, snapping at himself, the wires, the whole situation, and finally at Jamie.

At any other time, Jamie would have been hurt by the Doctor sounding so angry with him, but he saw the desperation in his eyes, and simply stepped forwards, took the Doctor’s face in his hands, and kissed him softly, once, twice, three times. The Doctor’s eyes fluttered open, and Jamie smiled at him.

“It’ll be fine,” he promised. “We’re going tae get out of this. You’ll see.”

When at last the Doctor slotted the grating he had removed from the wall back into place, Jamie gently pulled him away from it and hugged him tightly.

“Did it work?” he asked tentatively. The Doctor shrugged.

“I got power, if that’s what you mean,” he said. “And it’s transmitting. Whether it’s strong enough to reach the rocket – I honestly don’t know, what with all the mess from the space station breaking up.”

“How long have we got?”

The Doctor reached over to a panel on the wall and tapped a few buttons, producing graphs and squiggly lines on the screen. They meant nothing t Jamie, but evidently the Doctor was able to decipher them. “At most? An hour, maybe two. There’s only limited oxygen supplies. This wasn’t ever meant for long voyages, and we’ve already been here for some time.”

Jamie glanced around at the small space. “We’ve got no chance,” he said at last.

“Not – not really, no,” the Doctor said quietly. “I – oh, Jamie, I never meant to get you into this.”

“But ye didn’t,” Jamie pointed out. “And I’d rather be here with you than have died on that space station.”

“Yes, but – I wanted to keep you _safe_ , I promised I’d look after you – if I hadn’t taken you with me, or come back for you – if I hadn’t been so selfish in wanting you with me -”

Jamie reached out and caught the Doctor’s hand in his, stilling his movement. “Do ye really think I’d be any safer back in Scotland, in my own time?” The Doctor opened his mouth to reply, then simply shook his head. “They’d have caught me long ago, and I’d be dead, and I wouldn’t have had all – all this.” The Doctor was still looking at him with an expression of utter heartbreak, so Jamie pulled him in for another hug. “Och, come here, ye wee daftie. I mean it, I wouldn’t swap all these years for anything.”

“Promise?” the Doctor said at last, and Jamie laughed and tightened his grip.

“Really promise,” he said, nuzzling into the Doctor’s hair. “Do ye remember our wedding day?”

“You let me see you before the ceremony,” the Doctor reminded him. Jamie batted at the back of his head affectionately.

“Only because ye couldnae tie your tie and panicked because ye thought everything was ruined,” he said. “But it was the best day of my life.”

“Really? Better than the day you got your memories back?”

“Seeing as I wasn’t worrying about being shot, yes.”

“Or the time I found us tickets to the best restaurant in the galaxy? You said _that_ was the best day of your life, too.”

“Alright, so maybe marrying ye was the second best day of my life.” The Doctor smiled – a little sadly, perhaps, but Jamie still felt a flash of triumph.

They fell silent, still holding each other tightly, a little spot of warmth amongst the cold expanse of space around them. The universe was not always kind – but it had been this time, Jamie thought. They were together, at least. He could ask no more than that.

“I love ye so much,” he said, fighting to keep his voice even. “You do know that, don’t ye?”

“Of course I know,” the Doctor murmured in reply. “I love you too. I’m so glad I found you.” Jamie tried to pull him closer but found that he was unable to, so simply settled for squeezing his waist reassuringly.

As the air grew thinner, the escape pod colder, the chances of rescue ever more slim, they waited.


End file.
